North Korean authorities required Russian journalists to undergo testing for COVID-19 or other diseases ahead of weekend talks between Moscow’s top envoy Sergei Lavrov and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, a move that experts say reflects regime paranoia that outsiders will spread disease years after much of the world has abandoned such virus protocols.

A short video segment filmed in the lobby of the Chammae Hotel, where Lavrov’s press corps stayed, showed an Izvestia reporter lining up with colleagues at a table manned by several North Koreans wearing lab coats.

One of the North Koreans conducted a nasal swab